What Money Can’t Buy: 7 Years Building Stacker’s Moat

One of the most common questions I get in candidate interviews is: “What makes Stacker defensible — and why hasn’t anyone else done this?”

It’s a fair question. What they’re really asking is: “If a well-funded competitor raised $20M and went after the same strategy, could they wipe you out?” That’s usually followed by curiosity about our tech stack and whether there’s anything proprietary under the hood.

From the outside, Stacker can look like a black box — content goes in from a range of third parties, and a newswire comes out, syndicated across hundreds of news outlets with just a few clicks. (And yes, it’s all written by humans.) If you don’t live in the weeds of publishing, it’s easy to assume we’re just a lean PR machine with exceptional hustle.

But there’s more to it. Our moat may have some magic, but it’s not smoke and mirrors — it’s the product of seven years of deliberate, strategic groundwork. And a look behind the scenes into how it all works is helpful not just for Stacker job candidates - but for anyone thinking about how to capitalize on digital PR in the 21st century.

The Magic Behind Our Moat

If a well-funded competitor raised a few million in their Series A and set their sights on our business, they could probably replicate our tech in six months. That’s not a knock on our product or engineering teams — they’ve crafted beautiful UX on a lean budget. But we haven’t built Shazam (still the most mind-blowing product of our time).

But Stacker has something no amount of venture capital can buy: our distribution network. Our stories are syndicated to a network of over 4,000 news outlets, where they're picked up as genuine editorial, not as sponsored posts or press releases. But what does that actually mean — and why is it so hard to replicate? Couldn’t someone else just do the same?

Not quite. Our distribution network is built on three core pillars.

1: Partnerships

The foundation of everything sits upon a network of hundreds of partnerships to scale our licensing and syndication model across the local media ecosystem. We’re actively working with:

• 6 of the 10 largest newspaper holding companies
• 3 of the 5 largest broadcast network owners

Largest 10 Newspaper Owners in 2024

*Carpenter Media Group was listed jointly with Boone Newsmedia in 2023.
**Newspapers owned by companies under the Horizon umbrella have been newly consolidated for the 2024 report.
Source: Local News Initiative Database

Furthermore, we’ve partnered with the Local Media Consortium (LMC) — an alliance of over 5,000 local media outlets — which enables their member organizations to seamlessly opt in to Stacker’s content licensing through pre-approved terms.

Furthermore, we’ve integrated directly into several major Content Management Systems (CMS), including BLOX, Creative Circle, Lions Light, and eType. This makes it effortless for their customers to tap into Stacker’s newswire and publish content directly within their existing workflows - more on that in Part 2.

In total, we’ve signed over 250 licensing agreements with publishers, unlocking syndicated access to more than 4,000 news outlets. These include major media groups like MediaNews Group and Nexstar Digital, as well as respected independent publishers such as the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Santa Fe New Mexican. Anyone who’s navigated media partnerships knows this kind of traction doesn’t come easy — but we’re just getting started.

Establishing the relationship is only part of the equation. To truly deliver value, our news feed needs to integrate seamlessly into each publisher’s existing systems and workflows — and that’s exactly what we’ve built for.

2: Feed Integrations

After 15 years of working with local newsrooms, I have learned one major lesson: getting a news outlet to say yes to receiving your content is one thing — getting them to actually publish it is something else entirely.

The key? Remove friction.

Editors are juggling a hundred priorities. If you can make their job easier and your content effortless to access, you’re far more likely to get picked up. That’s why Stacker has obsessed over removing as much friction for editors as possible. Today, our feeds are so seamlessly embedded into newsroom workflows that an editor can republish a story to their site with a single click.

To make that happen, we took some big swings:

• We built the most comprehensive Feeds API on the market. It intelligently matches content to publishers, with feeds categorized into 24+ verticals and sub-verticals, mapped to 383 metro areas, and integrated into over 15 different CMS platforms. At some major news outlets, the dev queue just to integrate our feeds took over a year — after the contract was signed.
• We deliver content that’s 100% ready to publish. Most editors have to decide whether a press release is worth writing up. With Stacker, the story is already written. All coverage arrives inside the CMS wire with a byline, images (with rights cleared), and fully edited, fact-checked copy. No extra lift required.

You can’t brute-force your way into this kind of distribution. It takes time and relentless focus on the user experience. Today, Stacker is deeply embedded in the daily workflows of hundreds of newsrooms, helping them fill content gaps with stories they can rely on.

But none of this works without trust. And that’s something we’ve earned — one editor, one story, one click at a time.

3: Trust

The third pillar is also the most important: trust. It’s the principle everything hinges on. Publishers have effectively handed us a skeleton key — granting default trust in a world where trust is increasingly hard to earn, let alone scale. And in today’s polarized climate, that’s not to be taken lightly.

Stacker has earned this trust by carefully stacking the essential building blocks:

• Long-Standing Relationships: Over the past seven years, we’ve consistently delivered high-quality content. Our partners know what to expect, and we’ve proven we’re in it for the long haul.
• A Trusted Curator: Rather than flooding inboxes with press releases, Stacker curates stories that are timely, relevant, and consistently engaging. As subscriptions replace ad revenue, publishers are laser-focused on keeping readers on-site — and they turn to us for content that helps them do just that.
• A Reputation for Quality: The cornerstone of our stack is the peace of mind we give publishers. They know our stories are crafted and vetted by seasoned editors who live by the values of real journalism — accuracy, clarity, and trust.

This trust wasn’t built overnight. It’s the result of years of steady, thoughtful work — and it’s the reason Stacker continues to be a go-to content partner for the modern newsroom.

Support Sustainable Journalism with Us

For the past seven years, we’ve put in the kind of work money can’t shortcut—earning the trust of the people who decide what gets published. Stacker is now woven into their workflows, and in return, we’ve made it incredibly easy for them to access and publish high-quality journalism.

Our impact goes beyond distribution. It’s built on relationships, consistency, and a reputation for doing things right. In a media landscape that’s constantly shifting, Stacker isn’t just another content vendor—we’re a partner helping to build a more sustainable future for journalism.

Noah Greenberg is the CEO of Stacker, the first content distribution platform built for earned reach. He’s led the company in redefining how brands and publishers collaborate, with over 4,000 news outlets using Stacker to enhance coverage. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Noah previously helped scale Graphiq, later acquired by Amazon.

Featured Image Credit: Photo Illustration by Stacker // Canva